(Photo credit: Monika Rittershaus) Who’s afraid of double bills? We all love “Cav.” and “Pag.,” and there is some room in everyone’s heart for a “The Human Voice” meets “Bluebeard’s Castle;” nevertheless, Gluck’s Iphigenia operas performed together was a bit of a challenge. The operas, lasting two hours each, are easily stand-alone pieces, and—even though they share a protagonist—they appear {…}
The Opéra National de Bordeaux has announced its 2024-25 Season. Opera The season opens with “Le Pavillon aux pivoines” with Guo Xaionan directing. Performance Dates: Oct. 17-19, 2024 “Il Cappello di paglia di Firenze” will be conducted by Salvatore Caputo and directed by Julien Duval. Performance Dates: Nov. 7-9, 2024 Lucie Leguay conducts “Les sentinelles” with Chloé Lechat directing. The {…}
The Opéra de Monte-Carlo has announced its 2024-25 season. Festival Centenaire Puccini Giacomo Sagripanti conducts Puccini’s “La Rondine“ in Concert. Pretty Yende, Charles Castronovo, Deanna Breiwick, Juan Francisco Gatell, and Roberto de Candia. Performance Date: Oct. 30, 2024 Anna Netrebko, Nino Machaidze, Mariam Battistelli, Yusif Eyvazov, and Florian Sempey lead Puccini’s “La Bohème.” Biagio Pizzuti, Giorgi Manoshvili, and Matteo Peirone {…}
The Opéra national du Rhin has announced its 2024-25 season. Here are the opera performances. George Benjamin’s “Picture a day like this” opens the season. Performance Dates: Oct. 3-20, 2024 Jakub Józef Orlinski and Michał Biel will perform Purcell, Haendel, Schubert, Baird, and Łukaszewski. Performance Date: Sept. 19, 2024 Alex Rosen, Emöke Baráth, Adèle Charvet, Laurence Kilsby, Lauranne Oliva, Christophe {…}
The Opéra de Paris has announced its 2024-25 season. Opera Verdi’s “Falstaff” opens the season with a cast that includes Ambrogio Maestri, Olivia Boen, Marie-Andrée Bouchard-Lesieur, Andrei Kymach, Gregory Bonfatti, Marie-Nicole Lemieux, Iván Ayón-Rivas, and Federica Guida. Michael Schønwandt conducts the production by Dominique Pitoiset. Performance Dates: Sept. 10-30, 2024 Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” will star Eleonora Buratto, Elena Stikhina, Aude {…}
The Théâtre des Champs-Élysées has announced its 2024-25 season. Here are the vocal performances. Opera in Production Bach’s “Passion selon Saint” will be conducted by Leonardo García Alarcón and directed by Sasha Waltz. The cast will include Sophie Junker, Georg Nigl, Christian Immler, Benno Schachtner, Valerio Contaldo, and Mark Milhofer. Performance Dates: Nov. 4 & 5, 2024 Poulenc’s “Dialogues des {…}
The Opéra National de Bordeaux has announced its 2023-24 season. Opera Cristina Pasaroiu sings the title role of Dvorak’s “Rusalka” with Tomislav Mužek, Irina Stopina, and Wojtek Smilek. Domingo Hindoyan conducts the production by Olivier Deloeuil and Jean-Philippe Clarac. Performance Dates: Nov. 8-12, 2023 Louise Foor, Jonah Hoskins, Florian Sempey, and Matthieu Lécroart star in Bizet’s “Les pêcheurs de perles.” {…}
Who could outshine the great Javier Camarena singing “La Favorite” on the stage of the famous Donizetti festival? A consummate master of Bel Canto, singing the role of the head-over-heels-in-love novice, leaving the monastery to meet the woman of his dreams. Ah, we were certainly hooked on it. And yet, this year in Bergamo, the audience had to prepare to {…}
This week audiences will get to hear some world premieres, an album dedicated to the LGBT community, and a critical edition of one of Donizetti’s masterpieces. No Choice but Love: Songs of the LGBTQ+ Community American tenor Eric Ferring releases “No Choice but Love: Songs of the LGBTQ+ Community” with pianist Madeline Slettedahl on Lexicon Classics. The two-CD length album {…}
The Donizetti Opera Festival is set to present “La Favorite.” The festival will present a critical edition edited by Rebecca Harris-Warrick, which reinstates the original French version as conceived by Donizetti for its first performance at the Théâtre de l’Académie Royale de Musique in Paris in 1840. Riccardo Frizza will conduct the work with a cast that includes Annalisa Stroppa {…}
Florian Sempey has signed with Askonas Holt for representation. Sempey will be represented by Dominic Domingo and Flo Rivington for general management. The French baritone is well known for performing the role of Figaro in “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” at the Opéra de Paris, the Royal Opera House, the Opera di Roma, the New National Theatre in Tokyo and the Théâtre des {…}